Industry initiatives address needs of an ageing population, says Debbie Marshall, managing director of Silver Travel Advisor
At the fourth annual Silver Travel Awards on July 9, we celebrated the very best in travel for the over-50s with 21 awards and over 100,000 public votes cast. It was a packed audience at the National Portrait Gallery, hosted by John Suchet from Classic FM, and with musical entertainment from a very authentic Michael Jackson lookalike.
A key event of the evening was the introduction of the Silver-i Award. The winner, chosen by a panel of travel industry experts, will have showcased new ideas, initiatives or innovations for mature travellers.
Our population is ageing at a pace, with life expectancy increasing by two years each decade. We wanted to focus on how the travel industry is responding with developments that inspire and assist older people to keep on travelling in later life, at a time when bodies – and minds – are no longer in the bloom of youth.
Joint winners
It was exciting to receive the different entries and to witness first-hand the attention that is being given to product and marketing initiatives.
In the end our panel was deadlocked, and the decision was made to award the inaugural Silver-i Award to two winners.
One was Inghams, which had conducted a survey and found that 60% of over-55s are likely to try a new activity on their summer holiday. It subsequently developed an e-biking programme in Austria that encourages older customers to try a fun and easy way of exploring the mountains.
The other winner was Dementia Adventure & Personal Touch Holidays, a combined entry from a specialist overseas group operator and a charity. They challenged themselves to translate a proven formula of carefully crafted and supported UK holidays to a more complex overseas setting and render it equally successful. Dementia Adventure provided the dementia expertise, Personal Touch Holidays the overseas destination and operational experience.
Other entries
Other shortlisted entries included: Holland America Line, for its ‘Explorations Central’ immersive destinations experience, which the judges felt would give guests real and valuable insights to their land excursions before they leave the ship; Selective Asia, for its ‘Guide Connect’ programme, which the judges said was a great idea for guests to electronically meet their guides prior to arriving at their destination.
Forest Holidays impressed the judges by adapting hot tubs in its wheelchair-friendly log cabins, and Cox & Kings entered its ‘Finding your Feet in Rome’ campaign, which the judges thought was an exceptional marketing campaign, across several channels, for a product based on an age-relevant film.
In the words of Steve Jobs, “innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower”, and we sincerely hope this first Silver-i Award is just the beginning of what will become a much sought-after accolade.
Success means the travel industry
will feel inspired and empowered to create innovative product and marketing ideas that give older people both the confidence and inspiration to take holidays in later life.
After all, to travel is to live.